Ion Beam Figuring Machine

This year VECOR starts to build the Ion Beam Figuring machine - machine for high precise optical surfaces manufacturing by ion beam sputtering.

Ion beam figuring (IBF) is well-known technique, however it is not widely used in regular optical manufacturing yet. As far as we know there are about four - five such machines in United States and about 10 - 12 over the world. All these machines are located in big scientific centers and companies and intended to solve their specific technological needs.

Our goal is to create robust inexpensive IBF machine available for any optical shop. The proposed machine intended to work with optical parts Dia. from about 8" to 16" - 20", plane, concave and convex with sag up to 30 mm (probably more), and made of optical glasses, silica, metals, crystals. The machine must improve surface quality in a single run to values no worse than Lambda/30 - Lambda/40 depending on initial error and part specs. It also may be used for aspherization and to produce micro-relief optical surfaces.

This project is based on results of our multi-years R & D and IBF practical experience in production environment, so we do not need to spend a lot of time for related investigations and research. High accuracy and repeatability of our technology is based on used model which takes into account all involved parameters of an optical surface, a part material, an ion beam as a technological tool, and their interactions, as well as usage of in-situ dwell depth and sputtering rate monitoring for each surface point in any moment of a run.

All these factors allow minimize the design and development expences. We suppose that such a machine will cost no more than a regular optical coating machine with the same vacuum chamber dimensions. At the same time it may strongly increase an optical shop production opportunities, quality and performance!

VECOR is a small business company and we invite any company who is interested in advanced optical technologies, both equipment developers or potential customers, to participate in this project. We appreciate your help and co-operation!

If you are interested in this project, please feel free directly contact us with any questions, comments, and suggestions.